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THE 



PROBLEM OF AMERICAN DESTINY. 



AN ORATION. 



DELIVKRED AT A 



CELEBRATION OF THE GRA.ND ARMY OF THE REPUBLIC OF 
THE STATE OF MINNESOTA, AT OWATONNA, 



July 4th, 1868. 



CAPT. HENRY A. CASTLE, 

OF ST. PAUL. 



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Saint iaul: 



OI'riCE OF THE PRESS PRINTING COMPANY* 



1868. 






Grand Army of the Republic. 

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Grand Commander — H. G. HICKS, Minneapolis. 

Senior V. G. C.—WM. T.COLLINS, St. Cloud. 

Junior V. G. C— A. B. WEBBER, Owatonna. 

Ass't Adj't Gen.— O. L.DUDLEY, Minneapolis. 

Ass'T Q. M. Gen.— J. C. HAMILTON, Owatonna. 

Surgeon— J. B. McGAUGHEY, Winona. 

Chaplain- F. A. CONWELL, Minneapolis. 

Council or Administration; 

FRANK E. DAGGETT, Wabasha. 

G. W. SHUMAN, Minneapolis. 

FRANK J. MEAD, Farmington. 

J. A. McDOUGALL, Wabasha. 

WM. LOCHREN, St. Anthony. 



THE PEOBLEM OF AMERICAN DESTINY. 



On this proud aucl happy day, when from one verge to the other of our 
re-uuited Republic the old flag is waving over throngs of joj^ous people, 
celebrating its return with processions and cannon tiring and holiday fes- 
tivities, we, too, are met to mingle our loyal benedictions with theirs, 
and swell, with them, our choral songs of gratitude. We are assembled 
at the railroad centre of tliis vigorous young commonwealth, canopied 
by the steel-blue skies, and enveloped by the electric air of Minnesota, — 
fringed 'round with her waving grain fields, mirrored in her crystal lakes, 
and lulled by her singing cascades. We are assembled at the call of an 
organization representing the Soldiers of Minnesota. This organization, 
designed to perpetuate the friendships and memories of the camp, and to 
care for the enfeebled and unfortunate, the widow and the fatherless, has 
invited the citizens of the State to join with them to-day, that their sym- 
pathies may be enlarged and their hopes strengthened by intercourse and 
mutual congratulations. It is well that it has been ordered thus. It is 
well that we who fought, and you who sustained us, should, now that the 
victory is won, meet for celebration upon terms of equality as citizens, 
and upon a platform of no conditions, except supi'eme devotion to our 
country. 

It is a time for glowing enthusiasm, but also for serious meditation. 
It is a day on which our boastings concerning the past achievements and 
present position of our country should be tempered with an anxious re- 
gard for that future which is all in our hands. And since the enforced 
limits of the occasion forbid extended discussion, let us, leaving our lu- 
minous past to the high station in which history has embalmed it, — leaving 
our splendid present, visible and audible all around i:s, to speak for it- 
self, turn our eyes, with a keen and impartial scrutiny, upon our uncer- 
tain future. Let us, in other words, closely examine the circumstances 
and conditions which have combined to shape that luminous past and this 
splendid present, to discover, if possible, whether those circumstances 
and conditions are still in operation, and whether their combinations will 
still continue to work out similar I'esults. And in this examination is 
involved the solution, so far as our feeble power can solve it, of the great 
Problem of American Destiny. 

This is a problem in which every citizen of our favored land, as well as 
the sorrowing millions of oppressed all over the world, have a vital con- 
cern. But to you, comrades of the Grand Army ! who suffered much, 
and periled all, for your country's safety, yet counted those perils and 
suflerings nothing if by them could be secured the blessings of freedonx 
to yourselves and your remotest posterity, — to you, perhaps, is given a 



more potent realization of the deep importance of the question whether 
the American Nation is destined to be permanent, or whether we may ex- 
pect gradual degeneracy and ultimate extinction. 

THE AKGLO-AMEEICAN RACE. 

Since the fate of empires depends mainly upon the character of the 
people, and since all the aspects of our own nation are peculiarly inter- 
woven and identified with the new Anglo-American race which has 
founded it, we shall first trace out the origin and predominant character- 
istics of that race. 

We shall not find it difficult to trace back our ancestry, through the 
great families of man, to the earliest ages of which we have any authen- 
tic record, and we will ever find, that like the titular estates and honors 
of monarchical lands, we have descended, as it were, through the elder 
brother of each succeeding generation. We possess the best of old 
Noah's blood, many times refined. The Anglo-American race is derived, 
as all are aware, from the Anglo-Saxon. The Anglo-Saxon took its 
origin from the Celts. The Celts were descended from the Scythians, 
who were the children of Gomer, the first born of the sons of Japhet. 

Japhet, the third of Noah's sons, settled in Europe, and his family, in 
every age, has shown its superiority to the other two. It is said that 
" the whole earth is the sepulchre of illustrious men, and all time is the 
millennium of their story." If so the world is doubly ours, aud the ages 
to come are to ring with the praise's of our family name. Have the Ath- 
enians and Romans, the Italians and Spaniards, the French and Germans 
and English, successively amazed each other and the remainder of the world 
by their immortal works of genius, and by their enterprise which has 
given them successively undisputed sway over the entire family of man ? 
We are the inheritors of their blood. We are the sons and daughters of 
Japhet. The groat names in history are those of our own kindred. Is 
there anything of grandeur to be found in the triumphs of Philosophy, 
from Tliales and Pythagoras to him of our own land Avho wove his gar- 
land of fame ftom the storm-cloud's rich but fearful rosary ? is there any- 
thing of devotion to be found in those heroic sacrifices to truth which 
have reddened the fields of the old world with martyr blood ? This 
grandeur, this devotion, pertains to us. Have the harp of poesy and the 
lyre of song, as they have been handed down, from Homer to Vii'gil, 
from Virgil to Dante, from Dante to Shakspeare and Schiller and Milton, 
held the world in mute attention by their seraphic sweetness and tlieir 
power to charm? That harp, that lyre belongs to us. Do we look back 
with wonder on the deeds of Alexander, on the daring military feats of 
Cajsar, on the surprising genius of Napoleon and the immortal patriotism 
and valor of our own Washington? All, — all is ours. Japhet has ever 
held the supremacy of the world, and we are his sons and daughters. 

It would be interesting to trace down, link by link, our descent through 
these successive nationalities, but a due regard for the proprieties of this 
joyful occasion admonishes us to be very brief. It would, however, be 
found that each was heir of the very best blood of the preceding, and 
held the ascendancy in its day, over all the world, including the other 
branches of its own paternal household. Even down to the period when 
the Anglo-American race was cleft from the Anglo-Saxon by the emigra- 



tion of the Puritans from Great Britain, we find the causes which led to 
the separation sucli as to rally the true nobility of the laud. Our Pil- 
grim Fathers were the heroes of that age, — the heroes of principle, of 
energy and of enterprise. From this heroic hundred, stepping out froin 
England's millions, have descended the men who have moulded the des- 
tinies of our nation. 

Every incident ol our subsequent history has contributed to intensify 
the best type of these inherited characteristics. The terrible ordeal of 
the civil war, so lately closed, has been beneflcial in mobilizing the pow- 
ers of the nation and disciplining its individual defenders, and by stimu- 
lating our patriotism and our reliance on higher principles and a higher 
Power, has generated a new and nobler humanity. While this fighting 
generation lasts, at least, no foreign foe nor domestic traitor will ever 
dare to defy the flag we have sworn to cherish. 

Thus, from the earliest ages, our extraction has been from the best 
races of earth. The genius and the vigor of each generation, strength- 
ened by the infusion of the best blood of all its contemporaries, and 
purged by the expulsion of the weaker elements of its own, has be- 
queathed to its successor all the wealth of its accumulated powers. Asia, 
Europe and America are the three grand stages of humanity in its march 
through the ages. Asia is the cradle, where man passed his infancy 
under the authority of law, and where he learned veneration for a Divine 
Maker. Europe is the school where his youth was trained, where he in- 
creased in knowledge and strength, grew to manhood and learned his 
own power. America is, and is to be the theatre of his manly activity, 
where he brings into use all the forces he has acquired, and where he is 
destined to develope fully and finally all the glorious possibilities of the 
race. 

Such is a condensed history of our descent " through a long line of il- 
lustrious ancestry." Its efl"ect upon our present condition and future 
prospects can be properly estimated only in connection with other cir- 
cumstances operating to the same end, which we will now proceed to 
consider. 

THE PHYSICAL CHARACTER OF THE COUNTRY. 

" The Western Continent," says Professor Guyott, " is founded upon a 
plan widely difl"erent from the Eastern. It is characterized by simplicity 
and unity, and by its vast extent, its fruitful plains, its numberless rivers, 
the prodigious facility of communication, nowhere impeded by serious 
obstacles, and its oceanic position, is eminently fitted to be a most mag- 
nificent theatre for the consummation of human history." Combining a 
soil of incomparable fertility, with a climate most delightful and salubri- 
ous, — free alike from the profitless luxuriance, the poisonous exhalations 
and the venomous animals of the tropics, and the dreary, eternal winter 
of the frozen zone, Providence would seem to have reserved it for the 
heritage of its chosen people. Descending to the minutiae of physical 
phenomena, we will find that winds and tides, oceanic currents and at- 
mospheric changes, her geological structure and geographical features, 
her lakes, rivers and cataracts, her mountain passes and her prairie 
ridges, her metals and minerals, her animals and vegetables, her forest 



6 

wastes and fertile vales, all unite to render our own America an enlarged 
and beautiful Eden, where man is destined to end his eai'thly career as he 
began it, surrounded by all the circumstances necessary to secure the 
highest type of human perfection. 

This land is the home of our race, has been reserved for it in virgin 
freshness and pui'ity, since the foundation of the world. We have gone 
in and possessed it by virtue of our superiority over its original inhabit- 
ants, and it is too late now to question the validity of our title. The 
whole continent is the homestead of our race, which, as we shall show, 
is, in spite of the infusion of many foreign elements, becoming yearly 
more homogeneous and indivisible. It was no dream of blind imagina- 
tion, but a burst of inspired prophecy, which breathed the thrilling ut- 
terance — 

" I see the living tide roll on, 
It crowns ■with fairy bowers 
The icj' capes of Labrador, 

The Spaniard's land of flowers. 
It streams beyond the siilintered ridge 

That parts the Northern showers, 
From eastern rock to sunset wave 
The Continent ia our e." 

THE PHYSICAL CHARACTER OF THE PEOPLE. 

The Anglo-American race, since its occupation of the Western conti- 
nent, has been much improved by intermixture with the best races of 
men. Marriage within certain limits of consanguinity was strictly pro- 
hibited in the Divine law, and nature, by the innumerable physical woes 
inflicted upon Its transgressors, shows her approval of it. With us there 
has been every incentive and every opportunity for wide choice in the 
formation of matrimonial connections. America has been the goal of the 
adventurous and the daring, the patriotic and the noble, from all other 
lands. These have mingled and intermingled so intimately with our own 
people, that there is scarcely a domestic circle which does not represent 
several of the " gi-eat powers " of modern times. And this infusion of 
fresh vigor, combining with the healthful character of the pursuits of a 
large majority of our people, and their freedom from fashionable res- 
traints and fashionable vices, will continue to neutralize the baneful ef- 
fects of vice and folly so alarmingly prevalent in our centres of wealth 
and population. Luxury will slougli ofi" annually its thousands of useless 
devotees, but industry will raise up annually its tens of thousands of 
sturdy men and women, to swell the advancing thi'ong. 

THE INTELLECTUAL CHARACTER OF THE PEOPLE. 

The foregoing considerations prepare us to expect a full measure of in- 
tellectual strengtli and activity in this new race. It would be as absurd 
to suppose that a great mind could dwell in the eflete organism of a 
Chinese IMandarin, as that even an ordinary one could remain undevel- 
oped amid the raging animal spirits of an old Pict or Scot. What a basis 
there has been laid for the highest development of American intellectu- 
ality ! The rarest, choicest minds the world has known have appeared in 
the family of Japhet, and its history shows that intellectual development 
is progressive. The glory of Egypt was eclipsed by the Periclean age of 
Greece. Greece was surpassed by the Augustan period of Rome. Rome 



was surpassed by the Italians under Leo X. The Italians were thrown 
into the shade by the Columbian era of Spain. Spaia was excelled by 
France In the days r)( Louis XIV. Then France went down, and from 
Klopstock to Goethe, Germany had her day in the world of mind. 
England, which succeeded to the supremacy, cannot hold it long, for 
young America stands ready to seize whatever becomes the property of 
the Anglo-Saxon name. 

While the master minds will thus push farther and higher the intellec- 
tual triumphs of the past, the common mind is being lifted, and mental 
development is becoming universal. Learning's halls are open to all. 
Our swiftly revolving presses groan with the issue of their teeming vol- 
umes, and our capacious mails are burdened with newspapers and period- 
icals. 

THE MORAL AND RELIGIOUS CHARACTER OP THE PEOPLE. 

As a nation we have always been one of the most moral and religious 
on the globe. The sentiments of a pure morality, founded upon the doc- 
trine of the golden rule, are highly respected among us. Our Sabbaths 
are better observed, and all crimes are less frequent and more justly pun- 
ished than elsewhere. Keverence for and faith in an over-ruling Provi- 
dence has ever been a national characteristic. We all believe that God 
has presided over the colonization and progress of this country. Such a 
sentiment is a tremendous power. It is a source at once of high resolve, 
vigorous will, heroic efibrt. And we believe, as Christians, that God, 
who delights in acts of goodness to his faithful children, will perceive 
and acknowledge this deep national feeling of gratitude and faith. ' 

The principle of religious freedom and tolerance, wisely adopted by the 
founders of our government, is one of the greatest elements of strength. 
Under its benign influence systems of good flourish while systems of er- 
ror, which have been cemented by ages of persecution abroad are melting 
and falling away. Even the isolated Israelite is losing his identity. Do 
any fear from the influence of gigantic organizations of religious super- 
stitions, as, for example, they hold the Eoman Catholic church to be, 
they see that church losing its power over the children of its fold of the 
second or third generation boi'n in America, and unable to secure a na- 
tive-born priesthood ; and thus being obliged to shape its hoary tactics to 
the demands of a new and liberalized era, while its power for good is im- 
measurably increased, it is utterly shorn of its power for harm. 

THE SOCIAL AND POLITICAL INTSITUTIONS OF THE PEOPLE. 

The grand problems of social elevation which are being so successfully 
worked out in this Western world, are mighty motive powers in the 
wheel of progress. Nearly all prominent men in letters, science, states- 
manship and the church are striving in some way to help the unfortunate. 
Gx'eat national charities are organized, and to assist them authors write, 
statesmen plan, good men pray, and all true men labor. Nev/ moral ele- 
ments are daily added, and all the great social reforms not only give the 
poor more to eat, more comfortable dwellings, more recreation and more 
books to read, but they make them purer aud better. The best men of 
our age are seeking out the cause of disease, indigence and depravity, that 
they may devise means for their cure or prevention. They are achieving 



6 

great results, and their success is encouraging others to enter the same 
field, so that the force is constantly increasing. 

The rapid recognition of the real position and rigl^s of American wo- 
men is a marked and important indication of advancement. New legal 
rights are being guaranteed to them. Measures are taken for their sys- 
tematic education in those branches which shall fit them to fulfill their 
high mission as the mothers of a noble race. Political rights they maj' 
have for the asking, and political power they now control, in a pure and 
proper sense, more thoroughly than they ever did before. 

Our theories of government are now being established on broad, liberal 
and permanent bases. The terrible nightmare of human slaver}% from 
which we have just awakened, sectioualized our patriotism and made our 
boasted freedom a hideous inconsistency. That has been swept away in 
the fiery whirlwind of revolution ; but instead of sweeping with it, as we 
feared it might, the whole fabric with which it had been so cunningly in- 
terwoven, it left that fabric stronger and better than before. The inter- 
lacing cords of common blood, interest and destiny, to the exclusion of 
any system of recognized aristocracy, unite the hearts of the whole 
brotherhood, and bind them more closely together than any shackles of 
iron or steel that could be forged by the arm of the most cruel despotism. 

The social and political questions involved in the relations of the freed 
people are being harmoniously and philanthropically decided. Universal 
education is opening up to them higher spheres of profitable employment. 
Impartial sufi'rage is welding them into the body politic, rewarding their 
loyal attachment to us during our hours of peril, and guaranteeing a con- 
tinuance of it amid all future contingencies. The proud Anglo-Saxons, 
whose traditions of prowess and heritage of supremacy we have 
traced, fear no danger from the elevation of their benighted bondsmen, 
but regard it rather as a part of their sublime mission for the general en- 
lightment of the world. Do some of the complaining ones fear that the 
negro, in revenge for his own past wrongs, may attempt to enslave his 
former owner? They may read in the constitution of the United States 
the grand injunction, " Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude shall 
exist within all these borders." Do some even of the less timorous fear 
that in States where negroes are in the majority they will at least dis- 
franchise the whites? They may read in the constitutions of all the 
States where this could be attempted the declaration, " No man shall be 
disfranchised on account of race or color." The wise ordinances pro- 
claimed for the protection of the one race are equally applicable to the 
other; and both, under them, may march on, without fear or jealousy, in 
harmonious concert of labor and usefulness. 

THE PRACTICAL ELEMENT OF THE AMERICAN CHARACTER. 

The disposition to spend no time in vain or useless theorizing, but the 
desire to reduce every new theory to practical, beneficial operation, gives 
great impetus to the genius of American Progress. The wisdom and ex- 
perience of all past ages, the vast powers of the remarkable inventive 
faculties of the Anglo-American race, its industry and energy, all turned 
to a practical account, bearing directly upon our advancement, are pro- 
ducing, and will continue to produce astonishing results. Our mountains 
are bowing their imperial heads, and our valleys are rising to their sum- 



9 

mits. Iron coach-ways ai'e spanning the continent and interlacing with 
each other in a net-work of channels of communication. Broad areas 
are annually conquered from the wilderness and added to the domain of 
civilization. The map of our country, received fresh and accurate from 
the publisher at the beginning of one year, must be rolled up, old and 
useless, before the end of the next. Ranging through all the fields of 
science, master spirits are plucking here and there a flower, not that 
they may weave them into garlands to adorn the brow of beauty, but that 
they may transplant them into congenial soil, where the flower will de- 
vetope into a fruitage of substantial benefit to man. 

The chimeras of the olden Philosophy are abandoned for the practical 
possibilities of the new dispensation. The old alchemists sought a meth- 
od of turning baser metals into gold. They failed, as it was in the order 
of Providence that they should fail, since their success would have di- 
minished instead of increasing the wealth of the world. For if gold 
were made so abundant it would no longer answer the purposes of money, 
and for actual use it is less valuable than iron. Modern science does not 
expend its eSbrts in these directions. It adds to the wealth of the world 
by increasing man's capacity of production, and adds to the length of 
life by multiplying the means of happiness. 

We, to whom the incredible marvels of the past are accomplished and 
familiar facts, are liable to doubts as to the continued triumphs of human 
intelligence. We say with the youthful Alexander, " The universality of 
our fathers' conquests leave little for us to achieve." Indeed ! When did 
the Almighty Power that formed the mind set limits to its expansion ? The 
victories of Philip of Macedon, extensive as they were, were more than 
eclipsed by those of the once despairing Alexander. The apparent im- 
impossibilities of yesterday are the probabilities of to-day, the realities 
of to-morroAV. And although it would seem that the limits of progress 
had been reached in some directions, yet bold and ardent minds are fond 
of pushing their investigations onward and ouward into the shadowy 
realms of the infinite, tearing away the misty vail that impedes human 
vision, and exploring among the unfathomable mysteries beyond. They 
follow tlie reflection of a star, trembling upon the bosom of a lake, and 
melting away in its depths, until they find it, a flashing diamond among 
the pebbles on its bed. They see yet higher, brighter triumphs in the ca- 
reer of electricity, photography, and the thousand other new discoveries. 
And through the glimmering mist of futurity they see faint, undefined, 
but swelling embryos of other yet undreamed-of wonders, rapidly unfold- 
ing and destined in the fullness of time to burst forth upon the Avorld, to 
invigorate, elevate and illumine with their full-orbed splendor. 

THE GENERAL PROSPERITY OF THE MASSES. 

With us, labor has been the parent of prosperity. With us, God's soil 
and sunshine have been converted into charming homes, flourishing farms 
and productive capital. The laws of nature have not been violated, nor 
the purity of society outraged in the acquisition of our wealth. All 
classes have grown rich together ; but the ratio of comparative benefit 
has been largely in favor of the poorer. Steady employment, high wages, 
rapid increase in the value of landed property, and remunerative prices 
for the products of agriculture aud skilled labor, together with the abun- 



10 

dance of raw material, have richly remunerated the toil of the working 
people of all avocations. Ilence the tendency of American prosperity is, 
on the whole, to the increase of substantial comforts to the poorer, 
rather than of baneful luxuries to the richer classes. A prosperity so 
universal and beneficial, so well merited and well appreciated, must inev- 
itably tend to the general advancement of the race. 

One of the results of this abundant prosperity is the universal dissem- 
ination of educational advantages to all the people. Tlie rapid progress 
and mighty results of our noble free-school system are too often referred 
to, aud too constantly present befoi'e us^ to demand extended considera- 
tion. To them is to be attributed, in a constantly increasing measure, 
not only the moral and mental Init also the material prosperity of the 
people. 

There is darkness and desolation in one fair section of our land to-day, 
trought upon the people bj' their own unutterable wickedness and stu- 
pendous folly. But that wickedness is atoned for, that folly has been 
terribly punished. Let us unite with them now to build up the waste 
places, that the orange and the magnolia again may bloom, aud the cy- 
press again may wave 'round the walls of happy homes. Over redan and 
bastion and lunette, over ditch aud parapet and rifle-pit, worn down or 
tilled up by the elements, and smoothed over by time, a carpet of green 
will be woven, and roses will sweetly unfold. So let time smootL over 
the roughness of our righteous resentment, and so soon as we can, 
safely, though not a moment sooner, let us restore the erring ones to 
their forfeited heritages, that all may work together as brothers, nearer 
than before, for the common prosperity of all. 



Thus we have briefly sketched a few of the innumerable phases and as- 
pects in our present condition bearing on our future prospects. It is a 
fruitful theme, and one upon which we love to linger. But these are all 
we can present now. They all combine, we think, to produce an answer 
to the question with which we started, — " Is our nation permanent in its 
character, and destined ultimately to become the greatest on the earth ?" 
— and that answer is fully and triumphantly in the affirmative. Let us 
now allude to some of the means by which this consummation is to be 
reached. 

:means op advancement. 

The Gospel of Christ is to ])e the great reforming agent. All the agi- 
tations in politics and morals, all the tumults and convulsions since His 
advent, have been but " the moving of the spirit of God on the face of 
the waters," previous to the issuing of the mandate, " Let there be Light ! " 
The followers of Christ are being rapidly assimilated, heathen nations 
are being gathered in, and the blood-crimsoned banner of the Cross is 
waving over the ruins alike of false religious and pagan idolatries. Thus 
united they have a wonderful power, reaching every corner of the globe. 
From the days of the Apostles until now, every region which has re- 
ceived their evangel has speedily risen to the highest civilization. 

Meanwhile, subservient to this, all other elements will be at work. 



11 

The science of government will be perfected, so that men will live har- 
moniously, and thus wars and strifes will cease. 

The mysteries of nature will be revealed, and men will learn to avail 
themselves of her great fundamental laws, and apply them to their own 
necessities, so that suffering and poverty will be unknown. 

By the progress of inventions labor will be lightened, so that all will 
find time for mental and moral cultivation. 

With the removal of poverty temptations to crime will be dimin- 
ished, and by moral improvement the propensity to commit crime will ])e 
destroyed. 

As wealth and education become universal they will cease to be dis- 
tinctions. No kind of honest labor will be degrading, for when all men 
are equal no trade can claim superiority. 

As man learns his physical structure he will be able to. avoid all del- 
eterious practices, thus preserving his health and increasing his lon- 
gevity. 

He will find the much-dreaded excess of population impossible, for as 
mental development goes on a diminution of fertility will, by a well es- 
tablished law of nature, be the result. 

Here, then, is reached a state of virtue, peace, intelligence, health, 
ease and happiness. This is the millennium, brought about by no con- 
vulsions or upheavings, but in the fullness of Divine wisdom and power, 
by the harmonious co-ordination of a thousand incongruous events, orig- 
inating in the establishment of the world, identified with all the phases 
of its history, and laboring steadily, throughout the lapse of ages, for 
the accomplishment of the one great end. 

CONCLUSION. 

This is the solution of the great " Problem of American Destiny," and 
it points to a glory-crowned period in the future of favored America. 

And we may disclaim all selfish pride in this contemplation, for the 
world is to grow better with us. America is to be but the centre, 
from which are radiated those heaven-born beams which will make the 
whole earth bud and blossom as the rose, and make man worthy to again 
inhabit that beauteous home which angel hands prepared for him in the 
sweet fields of Eden. 

This is our manifest destiny. But we must not lie down languidly to 
await its fulfillment. If we allow love of ease and luxury, or a blind re- 
liance on the decrees of fate to possess us, we will but add another to the 
long array of nations on whose fallen domes and crumbling pillars Time 
has set the seal of " departed greatness." But let us gird ourselves up 
for the fight and strike giant blows at the enemies before us. The agents 
of Satan are always laboring to mar the plans of the Beneficent. So cow- 
ardly conservatism and cruel treason, always have and always will array 
themselves against the progress of holy Truth. We must watch and fight 
them still, for on our own eternal vigilance, will our lease of Liberty 
depend. Let us unite to-day in a solemn vow, " As firm as the mountains, 
as deep as the sea, and as pure as the heavens above us," that Ave will 



12 

work on and fight on until the end, and bequeath the battle to our 
rising posterity. Then 

" Weep not for the past, for a dawn is awaking 

More pregnant with truth than the marble of old, 
Kings tremble at Liberty's cry, and now shaking, 

Thrones vanish from sight like a gossamer scroll. 
Upon the bright forehead of earth there are burning 

Great words. They arc words which the nations shall know; 
They speak in the thunder, while empires are urning 

The ashes of tyrants who ruled long ago." 

You may call these predictions the wild dreams of an enthusiast, but if 
they be dreams, God grant that I may never awake to see them dispelled. 
Let me dream on ! Let me still retain the vision of a bright and glorious 
future for my beloved country. Let me dream that the black clouds 
which so lately obscured the golden sun of liberty will soon all be swept 
away, and tliat the anthems of deliverance from the millions just freed 
from slavery's chains may mount up, with our own enraptured chorns of 
gratitude and joy, — uninterrupted to the great Throne of the Eternal 
King. Let me dream that the dark clouds are to be swept away, the 
thick gloom dispelled, and that we, walking in the illumination of that 
bright orb, brightened and purified, may march on, with shouts and songs 
of triumph, to the accomplishment of our high-written destiny. 



